You can accept an offer of admission to a college…and if you get off of a preferred waitlist, you can accept the new waitlist offer, and immediately let the first school know you have done so.
2 Likes
And while it might be obvious, a reminder to everyone to officially decline the programs your student will not be attending as soon as possible. This allows the waitlists and the corresponding funding (if applicable) to move for others.
The next few weeks should show some waitlist opportunities… and hopefully some money to go along with it. But hard to tell.
4 Likes
You already have your answer but I just wanted to add that your sentiment is kind. I get it. But please note that these “institutions” are sophisticated. They do this each year. Students accepting and then declining due to wait list movement is common enough. So common that I would guess that it’s “baked” into their calculations. So no worries!
I think that all parents should think about their student’s future foremost. Trust me, the institutions will always take care of themselves. And if you decline…they will be dialing their WL for dollars! And someone may be very happy in May. My D came off a WL in May (it was not a top choice school). Her friend came off one in June and accepted it.
It’s all good in the end.
5 Likes
Yes, they should definitely enroll at the school they like best from among their available options, and then stay on any waitlists for schools they prefer – knowing that waitlists may or may not happen. (Although in the music world, based on my observation, getting accepted off a waitlist seem a lot more likely than in the non-music world).
And even though this is new to your family, the schools do this every year. They have sophisticated yield management algorithms and waitlist management algorithms and are expecting many families to do just what you are considering, so I would definitely not worry about this and just support your student to make the best choice available at each stage of the journey.
Good luck!
5 Likes
Didn’t mean to post as a response
3 Likes
Thank you!
This is our first child, so it’s all new to us.
2 Likes
Hi, has anyone been waitlisted for Berklee 2027?
1 Like
Hi there! My son still has not opened his decision letter. I wish he would do it from the road, but all we’ve gotten are silly pictures from the desert 
Since you ask, I assume your kid has been waitlisted. Would you share what their instrument is? I think the music school waitlists will start to move and change very soon.
2 Likes
We are also in waitlist purgatory. Decision results were 3 yes (1 completely unaffordable), 2 WL at schools of interest, 1 no. Hoping waitlists start moving soon now that all the decisions have been released.
2 Likes
When requesting a sample lesson, do you contact the prof by email, and do you offer to pay in that email? Or do you do things by phone? If anyone could give me an example of what you did, it would be so helpful.
My son always did e-mail (sometimes the school has a form online to request a lesson; sometimes he contacted the prof directly). In our experience, if there’s a charge, they’ll always let you know and tell you what it is when they respond to your initial e-mail–i.e. we never had an awkward situation where we weren’t sure whether we’d be paying or not; it was always made clear beforehand.
3 Likes
Here is a sample of what we used. It was basically the same format and we tried to add any personal ties if there were any (you know my private lesson teacher, met you before, etc). He also added his resume as an attachment and mentioned when we would be in town if arrangements were already made.
Dear Professor Blah-Blah,
My name is Blah-blah and I am a student at the Blah-blah school in city, state. I am a trombonist interested in studying Music Performance at the Jacobs School of Music. We met briefly when the Boston Symphony Low Brass visited IU. I would love to schedule a lesson with you while I am in town if you are available and willing. I understand this is a busy weekend and may not be a possibility. If this would be a possibility, please inform me of your hourly rate. I have attached my musical resume to this email for your review.
Sincerely,
Blah
This format seemed to work well and the professor would tell us his rate or offer a lesson for free. We had some of each offers.
8 Likes
My spouse teaches an instrument at both a conservatory and a university. I have been poking around this thread out of curiosity as our own kid is in high school and heading toward this gauntlet soon and saw your question about sample lessons. I can tell you my spouse prefers being contacted by email (the odds of them picking up a phone call are very low but email allows time to reply when they have a moment), and honestly they expect to be paid as someone who is also in an orchestra and has a busy schedule plus their own family commitments they don’t have time to give out a bunch of sample lessons pro bono every spring. You can ask what the teacher’s lesson rate is and how they prefer to be paid (cash, venmo, etc) to avoid any awkwardness in advance so your kid can focus on the lesson. Erin_barrett 's example is a really good email.
8 Likes
FYI, I posted the 10 questions I think my son should ask about his final schools.
Sent it to 1 professor before an online lesson/chat. Prof was a bit shocked at how many questions but did answer them. 
1 Like
Hi I just wanted to jump in as we are in a similar situation. My daughter is applying for MM vocal performance. She auditioned for 4 schools - that was all she could manage along with her college load this year (opera, senior recital, etc). She got 1 no, 1 yes (safety school) and is on 2 waitlists for top tier programs that would be her first choices.
Both of these programs have been very proactive about communication with her. One even CALLED her which was very nice. The person she spoke to suggested she should ask the school she is in at for an extension on her decision. I’m not sure if that’s good advice but based on the person giving it, maybe.
Another thing she has done is to write letters to each school expressing her continued interest and highlighting reasons she would be an asset to their program. For example she has an interest in and experience with modern opera, and one of the programs in particular has been programming modern opera so she highlighted that. So that might be a good idea to do - stay in touch with them (without being annoying of course).
Anyway we can commiserate. My daughter and I were hoping to have this wrapped up by now and yet here we are! 
5 Likes
My son was waitlisted at Berklee. I’m going to encourage him to email his letter of continued interested today and then follow up with a call with a few questions. According Berklee’s common data set (https://www.berklee.edu/sites/default/files/2023-02/Berklee_CDS_2022-2023.pdf), in 2022-23 the school waitlisted 82 applicants, of whom 73 accepted a WL spot. Of those, 12 were offered admission. Not very promising stats.
However. The decision letter my son received was worded in a strangely optimistic way (if sent to every WL candidate): “Traditionally a sufficient number of confirmed entering students will cancel their enrollment at the college, making their seats available to waitlisted applicants.” The word “sufficient” just seems so loaded in the context of a letter sent to hopefuls. Indeed, he is hopeful but also resigned − which I guess is a perfectly fine state of mind to be in right now. He also has the ability and the willingness to wait out the waitlist, as it were. Especially since he placed all his eggs in only two baskets. And anyway, Berklee has long been his dream school.
Re his ‘no’ from New School. I forgot to mention earlier that my son realized only after submitting his application BY the due date that his time management had been faulty. After the application went in, there was a three-day turnaround period before he was given access to a video upload portal. So this application as a whole was late. His confirmation stated that he would still be considered for admission, but only after all candidates who had submitted on time.
It was blow to both of us. I took a step back this year and did not examine every last nook and cranny of the admissions websites under a microscope. I liked that he was taking charge of the process. I gave advice and read over his essays and all that. But I was not the keeper of the timeline. He takes full responsibility, but I still feel guilty as I KNEW he does not have my eye for detail. Lessons learned? Yep, on both sides.
Thank you so much, and you @erin_barrett. I want to make sure what I’m thinking about is appropriate. My son will be choosing among two or three schools where he’s been admitted. I want to offer him the idea–and he may decide not to–that he could ask for a lesson. We’d never heard of that before a few months ago. I’m not sure how aware he is. Is it appropriate to ask for a lesson when he’s not ready yet to discuss committing or discuss scholarships?
I don’t know what your travel plans are and how far you are from the 2-3 schools but he can also ask for a lesson over zoom (and offer venmo payment). He doesn’t need to bring up committing/scholarships and if the teacher asks, your son should be honest that he has it narrowed down to two or three schools and having a lesson to get to know the teacher a bit will help finalize things. It might help the teacher get a better window into your son as a student too, so if your son after the lesson decides this is the person he wants to study with the teacher might be more eager to go to bat on his behalf in terms of telling admin to try and find the kid more money. But from hearing my spouse lament for years about students they were excited about not receiving enough money to make it work, you can’t put the need for more funding completely on the teacher as it is too often out of their jurisdiction. The teacher can tell the powers that be “this kid is great please help them” but in the end it is often out of their hands. Best of luck to your son, getting lessons may be exactly what he needs to find clarity - remember this is the person with the most impact on the next few years of his instrument study.
1 Like
This is a busy time…but I don’t see any reason for not asking.
My kid did sample lessons with applied faculty before he made the decision to apply…and yes…he didn’t apply to a couple of schools because he didn’t feel a good click when he had the private lesson. He applied no where without first having a lesson.
@BeverlyWest are you saying your son has had no trial lessons with any applied faculty? If so…I would think this is an important thing to at least try to do.
Wow I’m surprised to hear the waitlist was so large. The fact that my daughter got a personal phone call made the waitlist seem smaller. (To be clear the school that called her was not Berklee but you would think they would all operate similarly.)